


Artificial Thunder

by Shadowmatic



Series: Like Blood on Snow [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: 2nd person POV, Afghanistan, F/F, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-04 09:25:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17302025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowmatic/pseuds/Shadowmatic
Summary: When Nina is first posted to the desert, sleep is a hard thing to come by.Inspired by The Waste Land by T. S. Elliot and my dad.





	Artificial Thunder

You awake to the sound of artillery shells. Artificial thunder is what they call it here, where the front line is everywhere and nowhere all at once. You roll over and stare at the tent walls.  


Just before every echoing boom, there is a flash of light, illuminating the faces of your fellow soldiers as they sleep. It really does make one think of thunder, you think, sitting up.  


“Hey kid.” The now familiar raspy voice of your captain calls quietly through the tent. “Couldn’t sleep?”  


“Nah.” You respond. “Just woke up.”  


“Join me for a smoke?” The captain asks, rising from his own cot.  


“Sure.” You say. You don’t smoke.  


You follow the captain out of the tent. Even though you know it is the artillery, you still expect rain when you exit the tent.  


“What are you doing here kid?” The captain asks, lighting up his smoke and looking up to the stars.  


“I want to do right by my folks.” You say. “My father fought in Vietnam, and my mother was a nurse. They met over there.”  


“No ambitions of your own?” The captain asks. You’re pretty his name is Gareth.  


You don’t really feel like talking about the failed way that your education turned out, or the fact that you didn’t have anywhere to go, and you know you can’t tell him about them. So you just shrug.  


“Boy back home?” He asks. You stare at him for a second. “Or girl.” He adds, when you don’t respond quickly enough. “I’m not going to judge.”  


“There might have been somebody. Once.” You say. It’s as if he was reading your mind, picking up on your thoughts about them. You wouldn’t honestly be surprised. “But, uh, they moved onward, while I stayed stuck.” You look up at the sky. There are more stars up there than you have ever seen in your life.  


“Sucks kid.” The captain said. You wish suddenly, that you had your camera on you. With the desert lit only by the stars, the distant flashes of the artificial thunder, and the captain’s cigarette, it looks just as empty as it does during the day, but for some reason that doesn’t terrify you the way it should. It looks almost beautiful.  


You sit quietly with the captain for a little while longer before he stands and slaps your shoulder.  


“Try to get some more sleep kid.” He says, heading back into the tent. You nod and stand to follow him.  


Before you go in, you look back out across the desert one more time, the open expanse so free of light.  


Then you turn and go into the tent.  


The artificial thunderstorm rages on, but you close your eyes and imagine there is rain to accompany it. You fall asleep quickly, after that.

**Author's Note:**

> Cross posted from my tumblr @tesdradgon, nothing else really interesting to put here.  
> First post, if formatting is terrible, it’s my fault.


End file.
